Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Housing) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I would like to update the House on the Australian government’s progress on reducing homelessness. On the best available evidence, on census night 2006 more than 105,000 Australians had no home to go to, and more than 16,000 of those were sleeping rough. That represents 53 people for every 10,000 in the Australian community. It includes people like Alison Meppom and her three children, Rachael, Fletcher and Levon. After leaving domestic violence, Alison and her kids found themselves homeless. As Alison said: ‘It’s hard to explain to people what it feels like to have three young kids and no home, no anchor. There’s such a sense of hopelessness, no money, nowhere to go.’ Luckily, with the support of the Australian government’s A Place to Call Home program and Mission Australia’s help, Alison and her family were able to be housed permanently. Alison said that when she told the kids her daughter said, ‘Mum, I don’t care if it doesn’t have any curtains or windows, it’s going to be our home.’ Alison said, ‘It was like I’d told them we were going to Dream World. They were so happy!’ It is stories like Alison’s that have driven the Australian government’s long term plan to reduce homelessness in Australia.

In February 2008, soon after taking office, we announced that our first white paper process would be on the issue of homelessness. In May last year we released a green paper to begin discussions with the broader Australian community on how we might tackle this challenge. In December 2008, the Prime Minister and I were proud to launch the white paper The Road Home. In the white paper we agreed to two long term goals. We aim to:

• halve homelessness by 2020, and
• provide shelter for those rough sleepers who want it by 2020.

These goals are ambitious but achievable.

Other countries which have sought to reduce homelessness have focused their efforts on rough sleepers and people who are chronically homeless. Australia’s commitment goes further—we are also assisting those people who are marginally housed and living in insecure accommodation. Our commitment is the most comprehensive commitment to tackling homelessness made by any nation. Our goals are backed by a bold and coherent strategy, with substantial reform to programs that assist homeless Australians and new specialist accommodation. It is backed by record additional investment in homelessness services and in new social housing homes.

I am pleased to report to the House that last Friday the Prime Minister’s Council on Homelessness held its first meeting. The council is being chaired by Tony Nicholson, the Executive Director of the Brotherhood of St Laurence, who led our work on the white paper. The other seven members of the council, like Mr Nicholson, are formidable and accomplished advocates for disadvantaged Australians. Individually and collectively, they bring an unrivalled wealth of insight and experience to the government’s homelessness reform agenda. On Friday, the council confirmed its forward plan to provide the government with independent advice on the progress, the risks and emerging issues as we implement our white paper on homelessness.

I am also pleased to report that I have now agreed to implementation plans with all the states and the ACT under the national partnership on homelessness. I hope to finalise arrangements with the Northern Territory shortly. Under this partnership, the Australian government will provide $550 million over five years, to be matched by the states and territories, to deliver a new range of services to meet our white paper goals. This total of $1.1 billion of new funding for homelessness services and specialist accommodation allows us to take a new approach to homelessness. This new approach focuses on preventing homelessness wherever possible, on reducing the duration and impact of homelessness, and on ending homelessness permanently—not just alleviating it temporarily.

We find homeless Australians in cities and towns across our nation, but homelessness has many faces: children escaping domestic violence with their mums in our suburbs; families who can’t pay the rent; chronically homeless older men and women; Indigenous Australians. The different faces of homelessness require different supports, and our approach has been to work with states and territories to find the approaches that work best for their populations. The implementation plans are detailed documents that will evolve over time as we learn more about the most successful ways of preventing and responding to homelessness.

For the benefit of the House, and by way of example, I would like to mention just a few of the reform initiatives contained in the implementation plans. In New South Wales, over 200 more women and children experiencing domestic and family violence will get help to stabilise their housing in the Illawarra, Western Sydney and Hunter areas through rental subsidies and access to long-term accommodation and support. Some 600 people will get help through rental bonds and advanced rent payments from Rentstart to access the private rental market, and up to 700 people in the Richmond-Tweed and mid-North Coast areas will be helped to maintain their tenancies, avoiding eviction and the need to use crisis accommodation.

In Victoria, a new Common Ground facility—innovative accommodation and support—will be developed in the Melbourne CBD, providing 118 long-term homes for people who are homeless or on very low incomes. Intensive psychosocial support packages will be provided for 50 people with mental illnesses to help them stabilise their lives and prevent recurrence of homelessness. New housing support workers will be located at major Victorian prisons to help prisoners transition to stable housing on release. Each year a total of 500 children under 12 in Victoria will get help to stay in school and overcome the trauma of homelessness.

In Queensland, 30 new bungalows will be provided in the backyards of family or caregivers’ homes to house young people at risk of homelessness. The bungalows will be built in backyards in Townsville, Rockhampton, Toowoomba, Inala, Mount Isa and Hervey Bay. A new Common Ground facility will be developed in inner-city Brisbane for 150 people, 75 of whom will be people who were homeless. Up to 1,200 vulnerable families and single people will be helped each year to maintain their tenancies through early interventions and post-crisis support.

In South Australia, a new 40-unit Common Ground complex will be built in Port Augusta for Aboriginal people who are homeless. South Australia will also build three new homes for young people aged between 12 and 15. For these young people there will be a focus on reunification with their families. A new legal and financial clinic for homeless people will provide free legal advice for some 250 people each year. Also in South Australia, 48 homes will be built for frail and aged people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.

In Western Australia more long-term stable accommodation with support will be provided in inner-city Perth for people who have been sleeping rough. Three new outreach teams supported by specialist mobile clinical units for mental health, drug and alcohol assessment, treatment and referral, will provide intensive help, including access to stable accommodation for rough sleepers in Perth and Fremantle. Eight specialist housing workers will help people leaving mental health services to find and maintain stable housing; five housing workers will give similar help for people leaving correctional facilities. Women and children experiencing domestic and family violence will get help to stay in their own homes, where it is safe for them to do so.

In Tasmania, five new facilities for homeless people will be built over the next two years. Two will be located in Hobart, two in Launceston and one in Devonport. In the ACT, accommodation and support will be available for young people aged 16 to 25 to maintain stable housing, keep up their schooling and help them find a job. Twenty houses and support will be provided over four years under A Place to Call Home for families who would otherwise be homeless. An integrated package of housing and mental health support will be provided for people with moderate to severe mental health issues.

States and territories will report annually against the agreed performance indicators in the homelessness agreement to ensure they remain on track to achieve on their agreed targets.

Of course, we will not be able to reduce homelessness unless we build more houses for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. This must include extra affordable public and community housing as well as specialist accommodation delivered together with targeted services to support people, once housed, to stay housed. The Australian government’s new building program will include additional housing stock for people who are at risk of homelessness as well as specialist targeted accommodation for rough sleepers.

Over the next four years the Australian government will deliver an additional 80,000 social and affordable dwellings—over 30,000 of those will be in public and community housing and 50,000 affordable rentals through the National Rental Affordability Scheme. Under the Nation Building Economic Stimulus Plan approvals have already been given to build 10,370 new homes across the country. By the end of last month, building had begun on more than 1,256 of these homes, with 17 homes already completed—the last of those as I mentioned in question time today. More than 31,000 have been repaired under the repairs and maintenance program, with another 14,000 benefiting from work done to common areas.

We expected to return 2,500 homes previously unfit to live in back into public housing stock through substantial renovations. I am pleased to report to the House that the government has far exceeded this target. We will instead return about 10,600 homes to active use as public housing that have been sitting vacant or soon would have become uninhabitable.

To meet our goals and targets to reduce homelessness we will need to ensure that our policies and programs are based in evidence and are well targeted. We should be able to measure the impact of our efforts and demonstrate their effect on reducing homelessness. We should also be held accountable. That is why, two weeks ago, I announced an $11.4 million four-year homelessness research program. The new Homelessness Research Agenda will underpin the government’s white paper and make sure our work is firmly evidence based. This research agenda will fund innovative research into homelessness—to improve our understanding of the factors that can prevent homelessness; to work out how we best invest in the future needs of children to avoid the long-term economic and social costs of homelessness; to find out what works to improve employment and education outcomes for homeless people.

The government’s response to homelessness links many areas of government endeavour. In January this year the first of four aged-cared facilities was announced with a $3 million grant to Wintringham for the Eunice Seddon Aged Care Home in Dandenong in Victoria. It will house 60 frail aged homeless people. In August the Australian government provided Mission Australia with a $16 million grant to refurbish a home in Redfern in Sydney. This will provide residential aged-care beds for 72 frail aged homeless people.

Many initiatives in other areas of government will work to reduce homelessness. Through Centrelink, the Australian government will employ 90 community contact officers to provide enhanced Centrelink services to people who are at risk of homelessness. The Australian government will also fund more support and assistance for people living with severe mental illness—with the next round of the Personal Helpers and Mentors Program focusing on areas with high rates of homelessness.

The Australian government’s National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women will work to reduce domestic violence related homelessness. The first stage of the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women is complete with $42 million for a new national telephone and online crisis service and for primary prevention activities, including respectful relationship programs. Through the Council of Australian Governments we will work with the states and territories to develop the final National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women for release in 2010.

The Australian government has also doubled emergency relief funding to around $70 million in 2009-10 and 2010-11. This will provide significant assistance to charities to meet the needs of disadvantaged Australians—many of whom are at risk of homelessness. The Australian government has also agreed with banks to negotiate postponing mortgage payments for up to 12 months for borrowers who have lost their jobs.

The new Job Services Australia framework together with the government’s Innovation Fund and projects announced under the Australian government’s Jobs Fund will deliver better employment outcomes for people who are at risk of homeless.

These significant initiatives will contribute to the broader effort to reduce homelessness and greatly assist us to meet our goals and targets.

The Rudd government’s housing programs represent an unprecedented injection of commitment and funds to tackling homelessness. What I have described to the House today is the down payment on a 12-year reform agenda. The government understand that we will not end homelessness overnight, but we believe that with sustained effort and an ethic of service we can reduce the number of Australians who ever experience homelessness, and better serve those who do, helping them move permanently out of homelessness. I commend this statement to the House.

I ask leave of the House to move a motion to enable the member for Cook to speak for 14 minutes.

Leave granted.

I move:

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent Mr Morrison speaking in reply to the ministerial statement for a period not exceeding 14 minutes.

Question agreed to.

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